I know we’ve muddled the order of our ABCs, but that’s actually how it’s presented in the Amplified Version. Sometimes, I think we actually should do BAC – Believe, Accept, Confess – which, in my estimation, is logical. Nevertheless, it is more important that we grasp and live the concept. Having reflected on Acknowledge and Confess, let’s focus on Believe. Consider Today’s Holy Nougat.
Romans 10:9 AMP
[9] because if you acknowledge and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord [recognizing His power, authority, and majesty as God], and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
What/ Who Do We Believe?
In Greek, believe is presented as pisteuw, and in that context, it relates to having faith in a person or thing; to credit someone with; or, to entrust. To believe in our heart invites us to have faith in the core of our being or to accredit someone with doing something regardless of what else is presented. In short, we’re taking something as fact truth and holding resolute to that premise.
Self-Check
To what do we hold resolute? Why?
Application
What Saul-Paul is asking us to believe is plausible to most of us. But we recognise that we were not Paul’s primary audience. The folks living in Rome at the time the letter was written would have been familiar with Matthew’s account of the guards being bribed to say Y’shua Jesus’ body was stolen (see Matthew 27:62-66; 28:11-15). Unlike us, they would have heard about it directly from others, and a few of them might even have been around when it happened.
The fact is, it’s not so much His death that proves Y’shua as the Son of God to humanity. It is His (self-) Resurrection. That was, and still is, unique about Jesus … Creative miracles abounded from as early as Moses’ era; (false) prophecies were present in the heyday of the kings. There were healings, resurrections even; but they were performed by one individual on/for another. No one else has raised themselves from death, as far as I know. (With the abundance of persons seeking to denounce Christ’s divinity, we would all have probably heard of that one by now.)
My New Testament professor was clear on this count in saying that the distinguishing factor in Christianity is belief in the resurrection. Otherwise, we will find that Y’shua is just another prophet, miracle worker, healer, visionary radical. He would not have been divine Messiah.
Of course, we also realise that Y’shua prophesied about this. Remember the words, destroy this temple and I’ll raise it up in three days, or, I’ll give you the sign of Jonah. As Jonah lay in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, so shall the Son of Man be in the earth for the days and the nights (in John 2:19-21 and Matthew 12:40 respectively)? That’s what Jesus said; and that’s what He did!
His resurrection was consistent with His prophecy and with His prior acts of raising dead folks. In almost each instance, Y’shua raised them out of compassion for those who were left behind. He rose from the dead out of compassion for us all – those who went *before and after* His physical time here on earth!
That’s what opens the door to salvation.
Point to Ponder
What you’ve read this far is what I believe. What, and in whom do you believe? Do you hold it as irrevocable truth?
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May all we seek be found in Christ
